Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Abstract

In order to investigate rock mechanical behavior under cyclic loading and unloading conditions, the clump parallel-bond model (CPBM) combined with the newly-proposed loading procedure was used in numerical simulations and the simulated results were compared with those of the experiment. Then the intact rock under different confining pressures and pre-cracked rock with different flaw inclination angles are also investigated in detail. The related numerical results have demonstrated that: (1) the CPBM, combined with the use of the newly-proposed loading procedure, can be used to modelling the intact rock and pre-cracked rock mechanical behavior under cycle loading and unloading conditions. The simulated results are in good agreement with the experimental results; (2) the number of microscopic cracks increases with the cycle increases during the loading process, while few microscopic cracks are generated during the unloading process. The higher the confining pressure, the less damage the rock has accumulated during the cyclic loading process; (3) the inclination of the pre-existing flaw has a significant effect on the macroscopic fracture pattern.